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Hardcore criminals should be put on penal colonies, as opposed to maximum security prisons. The difference being that they would be free to walk around outside and be given responsibilities in a community, albeit a more structured one distanced from mainstream society. Hardcore criminals may be crazy, but very few are incorrigible; it's just that they tend to be unable to get by in anything but a very structured environment.
I agree. What better way to repay a debt to society than do productive work for it? I'm assuming that was part in mind. Make able bodied ones do those shit jobs (sorry Mexicans). Those of less able body but sound mind doing... I dunno. Make the alternative noticeably worse. Send gangbangers to gang exclusive sections, keeping them strictly segregated (none of this all ya'll in the yard/cafeteria together), would go a long way in reducing the necessity for those prison survival skills that I think are as good as landing one back in prison as they are for stopping a shank.
I wonder if a prison farm (or similar venture) would be feasible, with wages (shitty ones obviously) building up in a savings account for those who will eventually get out (not having any money and little opportunity for legitimate work is formula for reentering prison), and lifers having whatever wages they would have earned going to pay for the facility itself. I'm sure it wouldn't pay for itself, but it would certainly reduce the cost in more ways than one. Again of course, assuming it was feasible.
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The reason we don't do this is what React said; there's simply more money in building spaceship-like maximum security prisons.
And even more money in filling them with non-violent drug offenders to increase demand. But that's venturing off topic.
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In the longer term: Very few people are really and truly bad apples. Very few people actually come out of the womb bent on crime and evil. It's no coincidence that crime rates directly correlate with ethnicity and social class. The basic causes of crime are lack of hope, lack of social attachment, and growing up in crime-oriented communities.
You got it, go on.
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Therefore, the best strategy to stop crime, is to fully fund education and healthcare, build recreation centers to keep people from being bored or lonely, and put vast numbers of cops on the street and charge them with stopping not only major crimes but minor crimes.
Lukewarm. Kinda platitude-ish in the first part. I'm not sure a rec center is going to stop a lonely person from being lonely. The last part is full agreement.
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Conscription is the appropriate means of getting enough warm bodies out there.
You lost me.
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I agree with the viewpoint held by many law enforcement people that minor crimes such as theft and assault inevitably create a culture of crime that drives away businesses and leads to a snowball in crime culture, until rape and murder become commonplace because people accept that way of life.
Ok we're coming back. I agree with this. Hence the saying, 'There goes the neighborhood.'
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I also believe it is deceptively important to improve road maintenance and trash pickup. Due to racism and political inequity, poor and/or black neighborhoods tend to get far worse road maintenance (it's extremely visible in Boston). I believe that road maintenance and trash pickup are important to keep neighborhoods clean so businesses can move in, and also because I subscribe to the belief that people's morals and value system is affected by the order and dignity of their surroundings. The effect is subtle but profound.
While in Philadelphia, my mother was approached a well dressed, good looking, homeless fellow. By well dressed I mean, not in rags, average, clean clothes. He showed her some paper with his picture and the program he was in and panhandled her for a couple bucks (is panhandled offensive?). Anyway, next time I walk around any city, I'm going to carry a couple small, office wastebasket sized garbage bags with me. If anybody asks me for money, I'm going to hand them a bag and say, you fill this up, and find me on my way back this way, I'll give you 20 bucks.
Filling that bag up should be little problem, Odin knows there was plenty of trash flowing down those streets. I estimate an average person could fill one every 30 minutes easy, probably closer to 15. Even if we say it takes an hour, 20/hr is more than I make, and probably more than most of us under the age of 25-30.
Unfortunately for homeless people, I hate the cities, especially walking around them (let's face it my fat ass hates walking, period). They'll have to settle for food shelf donations.
Anyway, Trash for Cash (I should trademark that). Sponsor a road, and you're donations will go to employing the indigent to beautify our streets!
Ok maybe not.
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I think a lot of people would commit murder if they thought they could get away with it
I disagree with this Machiavellian view. Certainly
some people would, but I don't believe the average person would commit murder because of an assurance of escaping punishment or even with a reason and an assurance of escape. Maybe I'm a rare gem, but Maxipad (I'm word playing your name Battletard, but I'm probably not original) seems almost certainly not the type to kill because he can get away with it.
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or had nothing to lose, and what puts people in the state of mind to do so, is the hopelessness and squalor of many communities.
Desperation and love however, are the parents of insanity.
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Not ever knowing what time it is
I had a teacher that would cover the clock. That was hella annoying. The sign always said "It's time to work."
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For a Constitutionalist who can't stop riding Scalia's nuts, you sure do hate the Eighth Amendment.
For a nut who can't stop riding Constitutionalists, you sure do hate Scalia.
I'm not sure this word rearrange worked. I just wanted to call you a nut.
And hey, I'm at least right in the latter half.
